Today
I am glad to be part of the city always, but especially...especially today.We make history, win or lose.
WHO DAT! Geaux Saints!
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Feb 7
Feb 3
LOOK MOM, I'M DOING IT!
I'm in the midst of my own personal crisis. Though, you wouldn't know it. I left the job that had housed, fed and clothed me for the past year and have been on an absolute tear since then. I've driven several thousand miles back and forth from NOLA to Austin and all points in between. Yeah, I say I'm taking advantage of the time I have to see my family and some old friends, but it's more because I just can't sit still. I live in a house that is little more than a repository for dirty clothes and disco naps.
So, it's been a month since I left my job and rent is due today and the $400 power bill is due tomorrow and South by is next month and I am quite honestly scared shitless of never working again. I know I will, but there's always that tiny doubt. I'm still confident I made the right decision. And in the middle of a crisis that should have me huddled in a corner, rocking back and forth and chewing my nails into bloody oblivion, I am sitting here right this very second in one of the happiest moments of my life. I am at the the Webtrends Engage conference, wearing my media badge and sitting in the blogger's lounge. I am doing what I was born to do: write.
Writing, by all my experience, is a tedious or soul-wrecking process. Writing for myself is the soul-wrecker. Writing for a professor is tedious. So, this part is new. Writing for all of you is absolutely energizing and, in the very simplest of terms, pleasing. I never knew how amazing it would feel to deliver information as opposed to just absorbing it then regurgitating it later to impress some social circle. Or some boy.
So it is with New Orleans Tech that I find myself here at this conference, feeling fairly certain in my interviewing skills after yesterday's successful video interview with Alex Yoder, CEO of WebTrends (the company behind the conference). Today, in about 20 minutes, I interview Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, VP of Marketing for Webtrends. I'm forming my questions as I type this.
Again, this is sort of new for me. I covered the CommNtelligence social media conference in Chicago last June, but in the middle of it, my uncle died and I had to fly to Tulsa. So, I feel like this is really my first media badged, full-coverage event. I've been to some sessions and went to Ignite on Monday and, I reiterate, I am currently the happiest I've been in awhile...possibly my whole life.
I'm scared to death. I'm ready to get back to work. But, I'm also not ready to let go of this feeling that I can do things through writing. That I can do this and make a living at it. I won't ever be rich, but damn it, if I keep feeling like this money will never, ever matter (except when rent is due or Entergy is sending me late notices).
I am a writer. And it's a welcome soul-wreck.
I am definitely doing this now.
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Jan 12
JUMP ALREADY.
Everyone has already written their Happy New Year blogs, but I wanted to wait a few days and give it some extra thought. I kept seeing everyone signing off of 2009 with a big F U. Fair enough. It has been a pretty rough year for most. Pretty weird, too. But, my 2009 wasn't that bad. There was only one thing holding me down. I had a great time on New Year's Eve doing the Merry Mayhem party and hope to continue doing cool stuff like that. We blew it out. We laughed and hung out with all kinds of cool people. It was a perfect night. Then, January 1 rolled around and I started thinking about having to go back to work. Dreading it. Literally, making myself sick over it. Anyone that has followed me on Twitter has watched the trials and doubt and explosive anger that came with the job I had. So, I had 3 days to think about what I wanted to do. Quitting was an option, but not having an income certainly wasn't. What the hell could I do? What were my alternatives? What did I want to do in 2010 that I hadn't done before?I have made it known to everyone that I have created the life I want to lead. I have spent the last 6 years of my life getting my shit together. I spent a lot of time with an awesome therapist who helped me build and rebuild myself after I had created such a mess of myself that professional help was the only way to start sorting out the pieces. My family supported me in every single way. I read and listened to music and jumped into math and science. I got my mind right. I GOT MY MIND RIGHT. Also, I came back to New Orleans.Everything in this life I had reconstructed was amazing. But, I was being held back by my job. It was my only source of anger and unhappiness, when everything else around me was amazing and fulfilling. So, the night before my return to work I was up nearly all night. Pacing, reading, thinking about goals. Thinking about what I wanted in 2010. Thinking about how I can make my life awesome in 2010. I knew the answer, but it was a scary one. I ended it. I jumped.The job that was daily, hourly stealing my time, stealing my soul, was done for. I cleared out my desk, turned in my keys and walked out the door, as calm as I had ever been in my life. There was a weirdly worded option to "think about" whether or not I wanted to come back, but I knew mid-conversation that no matter what else, THAT WOULD NEVER BE AN OPTION. So, here it is, nearly halfway into January and I still feel calm. There are moments of panic when I think how I left behind so much security, health insurance, vacation...but for the most part I'm secure in the knowledge that I can sustain until something meaningful and awesome comes along. I thought more about what I wanted in 2010. A perfect job? Sure. A big paycheck? Hell yeah. A new laptop? For sure. But, what I really want in 2010 is meaning and fulfillment and to continue living with purpose as I have been. I want those things in every aspect of my life. I've got cool gigs coming up doing non-profit work. I am writing professionally about all sorts of cool things and I hope, hope, hope it will only emphasize and add to this perfect game I started rolling in 2009. I'm going to enjoy unemployment and take the time to travel and see my family and old friends in Texas. Then, I'm going to come back to New Orleans and OWN 2010.See you there?Comments [4]
Dec 15
PORK, WINE, LOVE.
There's a theme on this blog: love. You all know me, you know I'm more about spreading the punchpocalypse than the love, but in this city, in this community, it's hard to avoid. It's overwhelming.
A gigantic part of the culture of this city is our love of great food in abundance. Fried this, smothered that. Washed down with a beer and a "How ya mom an dem?" around a shared table. It's usually how I roll. I may have a picky palate, but it is in no way refined. I eat about 5 things: beef, pizza, sushi, hot sandwiches and spaghetti. Those are my things. I have no idea how to cook and basically no interest in doing so.
I have a number of my own reasons for that.
1. I find if I'm not good at something the first time, I usually don't try again. And I'm a horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE cook. Terrible. TerriFYING.
2. My life is too busy to even try to learn how, therefore, I dine out pretty much every meal.
3. I have attached my own stigma to cooking and view it as a domestic chore rather than sensational joy. I do not care about the chemistry of cooking or the art of food's creation or design.
I have no patience, I guess.
This is why I'm lucky to live in a city where people actually DO care about it. I came from Austin, where choices are limited: pizza, bbq, Mexican food. That's about it. While I enjoy a city where eating flour tortillas at every meal is lauded and encouraged, it does nothing for my appreciation of exquisite and harmonious food combinations.
However, I do love a good get-together, and even moreso when I have some level of involvement. So it was with great excitement that Sara from The Grill Room at the Windsor Court hotel DM'd me one afternoon and asked for my help in organizing a foodie tweetup. My first thought was "This is a great opportunity" and my second was a very dramatic "dun dun duuuuuuun". If you don't know my history with The Grill Room, ask me next time you see me and I'll fill you in on all the sordid details.
But, common sense regained, I replied almost immediately with a solid YES. I recruited the help of Susan Whelan (@nolamaven), now dubbed "the Google of New Orleans", and invited a group of thoughtful, smart, well-traveled locals to join in and give their opinions on some food and wine offerings.
Last night (finally!), after what seemed like forever, we all gathered in a tiny private room in the back of the restaurant and prepared to be wowed.
And we were.
I had the chance in the past year to meet and get to know Chef Drew Djezak on a personal level, well before I tasted any of his food. He is an amazing and funny person who is loved loved loved by his loyal staff. So, while there is some personal bias there, there is no doubt that the man is a skilled and brilliant artisan.
We dined on samples of pork belly, "pho" noodles with foie gras in a ginger broth, parmesan gnocchi, Texas venison, scallops. For dessert: pumpkin cheesecake, fried pies and deconstructed apple pie, visions from the very visionary, awesome and (bonus) hilarious pastry chef Shun Li. This is not your grandparent's standard Windsor Court fare. It's not even MINE. There is definitely a new, young, modern twist on established dishes. I mean, c'mon: DECONSTRUCTED APPLE PIE, people.
So, on top of all the delicious food, we were treated to wine pairings by Sara K. So far, I've described this team from Charleston as brilliant, awesome, visionary, skilled. Let's add another adjective to that pile, shall we? I'm going to have to make this one up, though, as I couldn't find one in my personal lexicon to satisfy my description. Sara is a very Kasparovian sommelier. That's right, I'm comparing Sara's wine pairing strategy to that of undisputed chess genius Garry Karaspov. Also, because her arrangement of clean wine glasses last night reminded me of a very intense chess match. Against herself.
But, also because when she started talking about pairings (and again, this is something I know very little about), she had definitely done the math. She's traveled the world and knows the vintners and vineyards personally. She had stories about every single wine, multiple lists behind every single taste and incontrovertible reasons for every single pairing. I will tell you that requesting Sara for a pairing - which is not offered on the menu, but will not be declined - will leave you feeling smarter and your head spinning. One, because the wine is that tasty and potent and two, because of the sheer amount of knowledge she contains and can rattle off at any moment.
If you are a true wine connoisseur or are even just interested in wine, she's your go-to certified sommelier in town.
I have a growing affinity for The Grill Room. Not only for what it once meant to me, not only for the staff that I have grown to consider friends, but because of the reason I love this city: these places are our future.
As we grow up, as our tastes are refined, as we become adults, nay, GROWN-UPS in a city that allots an abundance of time for play, places like this are becoming our places. They aren't the hamburger or pizza joints that, while we all love, we can't continue to live on. These are places that we are growing into. And they are growing into us.
Sure, we can still have our playdates, our fun foods, but we can also have a place like this to go: get dressed up, spend a little more, drink fine wines, eat finer foods, and live like a grown-up.
I love that idea. I love the idea that this kind of new experience is growing on me. That I'm growing up. That I'm changing and that it's all with the help of this culture.
I loved last night and I thank the Windsor Court and everyone that joined in. It may seem silly, but I feel different today than I did yesterday.
I didn't even know I could do that.
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Dec 7
My Life IS Merry Mayhem...And I Owe It All To You.
My life is so amazing right now.I have never been so grateful to exist. The decision to move back here after 10 long years away was an easy one. It was made in about half a second. It just FELT RIGHT and now I know why: because it is right. It's the smartest move I have ever made. I've had some personal heartbreaks this year. My uncle committing suicide and the relationship with the man I was about to marry falling completely apart are the two biggest knock-downs. I didn't think I'd get up from either. But, I did. Something always kept me going.
New Orleans.
I mean, I have an ok job and I'm doing alright at Tulane, but what keeps me motivated and active and energetic is this city and its people. All of you. You guys keep me going every day. You all inspire me to be a better person than I've ever been. To work harder, get smarter, live like a warrior. You and this city both inspire me to "be awesome or leave" (to borrow a quote from @sheri_nola's rad kids).
I work hard, I play hard, and I dedicate everything I do to sustaining the things in this city: technology, art, culture, education, music, history, legacy, love. These things that I immerse myself in. These things that I desire, yearn to be a part of...and sometimes need. None of these things would exist without the people I know. Sure, tech, art, culture...all that would still be around, but my urge to actively help sustain it wouldn't be. You people that I know, you people that I call friends...if you think I'm talking to you right now, I am...you're the ones who move me. These words are for you.
In almost everything that we do, every event we attend, sponsor, promote, donate to, whatever, there is a valuable return. We see our progress in action, we make change, we influence. I think that's brilliant. I love being a part of it. But, I also think that having fun and letting ourselves relax without an agenda is valuable, too. What better way to do that than with a party? With that said, I invite/remind you about the Merry Mayhem party tomorrow night at the Foundation Room. I invite you all, friends. Friends I know well, friends I hope to know better, and friends I haven't even met yet. I invite you with no agenda and no responsibilities but to show up and have fun with me and my two best friends, Sheri Nola and Liz Money.
We've put this event together as a fun party at the Foundation Room, but more and more I feel like I want to bring everyone together and thank you all individually for continuing to inspire and challenge me.
I hope hope hope to see you there. Every year, from now on.
Thanks for everything. You will never, ever know how much you've done for me.
With all the love and respect in my heart,
Champ
Details are here:
And here:
Sponsored by the extremely generous and always MINDBLOWINGLY AWESOME Will Scott of Search Influence (@w2scott and SearchInfluence.org) and Robby Moss of Hartwig Moss Insurance (@hartwigmossins and hmia.com). You guys are the best.
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Nov 18
Eli Ackerman at the City Council Budget Hearings 11/16/09
Go, Eli, Go!Save Charity Hospital!http://www.vimeo.com/champsuperstarComments [0]
